A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 



5 



and they may keep away for a time or advance with caution. If very shy, like most Cat- 

 birds, they will sometimes skirmish about the tent for two hours or more before touchnig 

 the nest. The ice is usually broken 

 however in from twenty minutes to 

 an hour, and I have known a Chip- 

 ping Sparrow and Red-eyed Vireo to 

 feed their young in three minutes 

 after the tent was in place. 



At every approach to the nest 

 in its new position, the birds see the 

 same objects which work them no ill. 

 The tent stands silent and motion- 

 less, unless it happens to be windy, 

 but the young are close by, and fear 

 of the new objects gradually wears 

 away. Parental instinct, or in this 

 case maternal love, for the instinct 

 to cherish the young is usually 

 stronger in the mother, wins the day. 

 The mother bird comes to the nest 

 and feeds her clamoring brood. The 

 spell is broken ; she comes again. 

 The male also approaches, and their 

 visits are thereafter repeated. 



Possibly the fears of the old 

 birds are renewed at sight of the win- 

 dow which is now opened in the tent- 

 front, and of the glass eye of the 

 camera gleaming through it, but the 

 lens is also silent and motionless, and 

 soon becomes a familiar object to be 

 finally disregarded. Again there is 

 the fear which the sound of the shut- 

 ter, a sharp metallic click, at first in- 

 spires, unless you are the fortunate possessor of an absolutely silent and rapid shut- 

 ter, an instrument which is unknown to the trade, at least in this country. At its first 

 report when two feet away, many a bird will jump as if shot, give an angry scream, 

 and even fly at the tent as if to e.Korcise an evil spirit, while after a few hours, or on the 

 second day, they will only wince; finally they will not budge a feather at this or an\- 

 other often repeated sound, whether from shutter, steam whistle, locomotive, or the human 

 voice. This illustrates the effect of the alarm clock over again. At our first experience 

 with this nerve-wracking machine, we start from deep sleep and promptly heed its sum- 

 mons ; then we are apt to mind it less and less until \\'e sleep on serenely in spite of it. 

 If we were to place an alarm clock on or near the nesting bough, and let it off at regular 

 but not too frequent intervals, the birds would soon learn to disregard it as we do, and as 

 some of them disregard the babel of a city street. 



Fig. 3. Tent beside nest of Chestnut-sided Warbler, 

 broods, while the male is foraging. 



The female 



